[How to] Run KDE Plasma Widgets in Ubuntu Unity

We all like a bit of desktop bling on our otherwise standard looking desktops, and despite the recently-revived Screenlets project boasting a noble, if belated, entry there is still no competitor to style and variety of KDE’s “Plasma widgets”.

The good news is that You can run KDE Plasma widgets in Ubuntu 11.04.

What’s the catch?

Whilst one doesn’t need replace GNOME, Unity, Nautilus, etc with KDE counterparts you do need to concede your ‘desktop’ space (‘desktop’ as in the place you keep your shortcuts, icons, files, etc) to the Plasma Desktop.

The Plasma desktop works a bit differently to the default Ubuntu desktop. Right clicking on it, for example brings up the following menu: –

You won’t lose any major functionality – the Unity launcher, panel, etc will all look and behave as normal – you just need to ‘remember’ the the desktop space works a little differently and uses its own wallpaper.

The Plasma desktop panel sat at the bottom is superfluous to our needs. Right click on an empty space on the panel, and choose the ‘Remove this Panel’ option tucked under ‘Panel Options’.

With Ubuntu having a panel on top we need to move the ‘Activity Button’ down to bottom of screen (or wherever else you’d prefer to have it) for easier access. Just click on it and drag.

Launching and adding Widgets

Hit the ‘Activity button’ and choose ‘Add Widgets’. A bar will popup at the bottom of the screen with a selection of widgets. Drag them off of the bar and onto your desktop to use.

Want more? Click the ‘Get New Widgets’ button to browse and install from a huge selection.

Fixing minor issues

Running a “hybrid” desktop such as this isn’t without faults. If you find fonts in some GTK applications to look “off” simply adjust the font Anti-Alias settings.

Another gripe is that the Unity Launcher will sometimes retain the background of the GNOME desktop wallpaper; jarring if you use a different one in Plasma. Applying the same wallpaper in both renders this fault ‘seamless’.